I grew up with this saying, so smiling here! Maybe it’s short for “ready-up” the house? Love the photo! (And I ended up taking a different route last month to visit my folks, so wasn’t near your grandmother’s neck of the woods. Next time!)

In our family the phrase was “red the table.” I always thought it was Pennsylvania Dutch, as my grandfather’s people came from there and it appears that there was a strong Mennonite factor in the 1700s. On the other hand, I saw the same phrase used in a book by Sharyn McCrumb, a novelist who writes about Appalachia and the Scots-Irish, and she thought it was a Scots-Irish term.

What I know is that the term has come down from my mothers side which had both Pennsylvania Dutch and Scots-Irish lineage, and I have used the term all my life, to the hilarity of my children — i.e, ” What does “red the table mean, Mom” — followed by peels of giggles.

I also tend to think of the term as being Pennsylvania Dutch in a very broad sense (not just Amish or Mennonite–but a broader group of people with a German background). Interesting how Sharyn McCrumb thought it was Scot-Irish.

You are correct it is a Scots/Irish term. It comes from the Danish term ryddy op which means clean up. It entered in the English language about 1000 years ago. It is refered to as “middle english.” The Scots and Irish brought it over and any where they settled to work in the mines through out the North East you find it said even today. I ran into the explaination when I was writing my blog on City Chicken. I still redd up my house. You hear it said all over Western Pa and West Va.

Hello

I look forward to sharing my grandmother's diary with relatives and friends. Helena Muffly (Swartz) kept a diary from 1911-1914. She was 15 years old when she began this diary. I plan to post these entries one day at a time—exactly 100 years after she wrote them. I hope you enjoy this glimpse back to a slower paced time.

The header is a picture of the farm where my grandmother lived when she wrote this diary. It is located in Northumberland County in central Pennsyvlania about a mile outside of McEwenvsille. My father said that the buildings look similar to what they looked like when he was a child.